Insecticidal trait failure in GM Bt crops confirmed

EXCERPT: "All references to control or suppression of western bean cutworm are being completely removed from bag tags, competitive trait tables, product use guides and other customer facing materials for products that include the Herculex I (HX1) trait, but lack another effective mode of action for western bean cutworm," the company's [DuPont Pioneer’s] website states.—

In a sharp pivot from last year, DuPont Pioneer has changed its marketing language to state that Cry1F, the Herculex I Bt trait, no longer protects corn against the western bean cutworm.

"All references to control or suppression of western bean cutworm are being completely removed from bag tags, competitive trait tables, product use guides and other customer facing materials for products that include the Herculex I (HX1) trait, but lack another effective mode of action for western bean cutworm," the company's website states.

"Farmers need to be scouting and looking in their [Cry1F] fields to determine if they need other pest management tools," Pioneer added in an emailed statement to DTN.

Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences are dual registrants of the Cry1F trait, although they license it to many other seed companies. Dow is planning to change its marketing language, Dow told DTN in an emailed statement.

For now, only Syngenta's Viptera trait, Vip3A, still provides full control of the western bean cutworm, according to Michigan State University Extension Entomologist Chris DiFonzo.

"The Vip trait looks really good still," she said. "But we need to be cautious -- we don't want to lose that trait, too." That trait also is licensed to a number of seed companies for use against other lepidopteran pests like corn earworm. That use increases the western bean cutworm's resistance pressure on the trait, DiFonzo noted.

DiFonzo spearheaded a written petition by entomologists from five states to companies to change their marketing language for Cry1F last year.